Biography of Napier Collyns, who was at the heart of the small group of planners, economists and forecasters at Shell (which included Pierre Wack, Ted Newland and, later, Peter Schwartz) who invented and pioneered scenario planning.

Pierre Wack was head of scenario planning at Royal Dutch / Shell Oil in London for just over ten years. He died in 1997. He was a pioneer of what we know today as scenario planning – an alternative and complement to strategic planning. Scenarios explore a variety of possible futures for examining decisions in organizational planning. Pierre was a unique man with interests in Indian and Japanese cultures and traditions. He travelled extensively and led a unique life that involved long periods of visiting gurus in India and extended sabbaticals in Japan. His experiences with Eastern thought no doubt shaped his ability to evolve the scenario method at Shell, and as a result he was able to lead a team that foresaw the oil crises of the 1970’s and 80’s. This new volume will cover the basic context of his life timeline and attach it to the development of his thinking about scenario planning over the course of his career. After his death, Wack’s materials, papers and documents were collected by Napier Collyns and have recently been made available at the University of Oxford where the Pierre Wack Memorial Library has been established. These documents contain a variety of clues and stories that reveal more about who Pierre Wack was, how he thought and will provide details about scenario planning that have never been seen or published. They also reveal a curious man and include a timeline written by his wife, Eve, which details their relationship over the course of 40 years. Written for management and business historians and researchers, this book will uncover unseen contributions by a scenario planning pioneer shaped by significant events in his personal life that helped him to see the world differently.

This profoundly practical book is for businesswomen and businessmen who wish to integrate spiritual values with day-to-day decision-making, tight scheduling, and high-pressured management of multimillion-dollar responsibilities. Emilie Griffin--a veteran in the marketing field and the author of several acclaimed books on spirituality--draws on time-honored scriptural resources and management principles to unpack the spiritual meaning of executive life. Her central premise is that the spiritual imagination must be refreshed to see God's presence in the work itself--even the details. Her approach is wide-ranging, drawing on the poetic mysticism of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Teilhard de Chardin and the practical wisdom of such business thinkers as Peter Drucker and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The Reflective Executive eschews dualism and provides spiritual insights on such themes as effectiveness, time, contribution, decision-making, setting goals and priorities, weighing failure and success, building on strength, and envisioning God as lord of the marketplace. The book also includes practical exercises and themes for reflection.

“A profound book that offers us a wise way to negotiate our toughest group, community, and societal challenges.” —William Ury, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of Getting to Yes To try to solve their toughest problems, people either push for what they want at all costs or try to completely avoid conflict. Adam Kahane argues that these two seemingly contradictory approaches are each a reflection of two distinct, fundamental drives: power, the single-minded desire to achieve one’s solitary purpose; and love, the drive towards unity. They are inextricable parts of human nature, so to achieve lasting change you have to able to work fluidly with both. Kahane delves deeply in the dual nature of power and love, exploring their complex and intricate interplay. With disarming honesty he relates how, through trial and error, he learned to balance between them, shifting from one to the other as though learning to walk—at first falling, then stumbling forward, and finally moving purposefully toward true, lasting reconciliation and progress. For the last twenty years Kahane has worked around the world on a variety of challenges: economic development, food security, health care, judicial reform, peacemaking, climate change. He has worked with diverse teams of leaders—executives and politicians, generals and guerillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and United Nations officials, clergy and artists. He has seen, up close and personal, examples of inspiring progress and terrifying regress. Power and Love reports what he has learned from these hard-won experiences. “This exceptionally brave book pierces to the heart of how we must act in the world we so want to change.” —Margaret J. Wheatley, bestselling author of Leadership and the New Science

Scenario planning brought up to date with case studies and a series of essential essays from one of its foremost exponents: Jay Ogilvy.

With a light touch and an interesting variety of examples, de Geus employs biological metaphors in order to analyze corporate management.

Two leading experts on designing strategic conversations unveil a simple, creative process that allows teams to tackle their most challenging issues. In our fast-changing world, leaders are increasingly confronted by messy, multifaceted challenges that require collaboration to resolve. But the standard methods for tackling these challenges—meetings packed with data-drenched presentations or brainstorming sessions that circle back to nowhere—just don’t deliver. Great strategic conversations generate breakthrough insights by combining the best ideas of people with different backgrounds and perspectives. In this book, two experts “crack the code” on what it takes to design creative, collaborative problem-solving sessions that soar rather than sink. Drawing on decades of experience as innovation strategists—and supported by cutting-edge social science research, dozens of real-life examples, and interviews with well over 100 thought leaders, executives, and fellow practitioners— they unveil a simple, creative process that leaders and their teams can use to unlock solutions to their most vexing issues. The book also includes a “Starter Kit” full of tools and tips for putting the book’s core principles into practice.